2015 rMBP waking to Black Screen

[iamMacPerson]

I just bought a new-to-me MacBook Pro and I'm having a problem with the machine waking to a black screen. I restored the computer through Thunderbolt TDM and Migration Assistant from my old MBP and have Unlock with Apple Watch and FileVault turned on. I called AppleCare and was only told to try setting up a test user and try to reproduce, which is fine except I need to use the machine and need unrestricted access to my apps and files. It seems to only happen when the machine is in sleep mode for extended periods, for example when I put it to sleep overnight plugged in. Could it be due to Power Nap possibly?

 

[Sanpete]

A shot in the dark, as it were, but someone posted this link yesterday. Might be worth checking.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...d-prompt-when-trying-to-boot-or-wakeup-screen

 

[rutrack]

So can you reproduce it with test user ? The reason they suggested it, is it might be caused by incompatibilities by some of the sttings/apps you imported over from your old MBP, so it's a good idea to pinpoint which one.

 

[iamMacPerson]

A shot in the dark, as it were, but someone posted this link yesterday. Might be worth checking.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...d-prompt-when-trying-to-boot-or-wakeup-screen

Mine's a different problem. The backlight comes on but the screen never displays a picture. It's just blank/black.

So can you reproduce it with test user ? The reason they suggested it, is it might be caused by incompatibilities by some of the sttings/apps you imported over from your old MBP, so it's a good idea to pinpoint which one.

I get why they do it, however I cannot be without my files for an entire day waiting to see if this fixes itself. I can try logging into the test user and leaving it overnight, but it's also worth noting that it Kernel Paniced with an error pointing towards the SSD. I can't recall exactly what it said, but the gist was that it couldn't reach the SATA drive after five attempts and was terminating.

 

[rutrack]

Mine's a different problem. The backlight comes on but the screen never displays a picture. It's just blank/black.



I get why they do it, however I cannot be without my files for an entire day waiting to see if this fixes itself. I can try logging into the test user and leaving it overnight, but it's also worth noting that it Kernel Paniced with an error pointing towards the SSD. I can't recall exactly what it said, but the gist was that it couldn't reach the SATA drive after five attempts and was terminating.

If your laptop thrown a kernel panic there could be many things wrong with it, from a hardware failure to, well, it's hard to say, but you can find the error log . It might not be waking up because your hard drive is full. Try to open "console" app under utility, it should contain the logs from your failing even, try to see if you can pinpoint the errors in the given time frame.

 

[iamMacPerson]

If your laptop thrown a kernel panic there could be many things wrong with it, from a hardware failure to, well, it's hard to say, but you can find the error log . It might not be waking up because your hard drive is full. Try to open "console" app under utility, it should contain the logs from your failing even, try to see if you can pinpoint the errors in the given time frame.

The hard drive has well over 100GB free. The only other thing the Kernel report showed was something about 'Thread 3 crashing'. That's it. It's only thrown one Kernel panic.

 

[iamMacPerson]

Update: It is happening under the test user.

 

[rutrack]

Then it is related to your system config and installed apps. Do you have anything installed that modifies system kernel or has custom drivers ?

 

[halfbad]

Had a similar issue, black screen over extended sleep cycles. more than a few hours right?

There are a few things that may be affecting it,
- Do you have a 3rd party drive installed? I had a bad 3rd party drive that wouldn't sleep properly.
- Google how to turn off your 'hibernation' and the sleep image. This worked for me, however you lose deep sleep.
- Get a diagnostic done at the Genius Bar, they will run VAST test and see if it's your logic board.

I had my logic board replaced, but also had issues with my drive. With my logic board replaced and he OEM drive back in I didn't have the same problems anymore. However when I did, disabling the 'hibernation' and sleep image through terminal worked.

If my computer ever went to sleep for more than a few hours, it would wake to the black screen, but on and I had to force reboot it. same thing?

 

[iamMacPerson]

Had a similar issue, black screen over extended sleep cycles. more than a few hours right?

There are a few things that may be affecting it,
- Do you have a 3rd party drive installed? I had a bad 3rd party drive that wouldn't sleep properly.
- Google how to turn off your 'hibernation' and the sleep image. This worked for me, however you lose deep sleep.
- Get a diagnostic done at the Genius Bar, they will run VAST test and see if it's your logic board.

I had my logic board replaced, but also had issues with my drive. With my logic board replaced and he OEM drive back in I didn't have the same problems anymore. However when I did, disabling the 'hibernation' and sleep image through terminal worked.

If my computer ever went to sleep for more than a few hours, it would wake to the black screen, but on and I had to force reboot it. same thing?

That is exactly the same issue I have been having! It makes sense now that hibernation has something to do with it. Someone else tried to tell me is was FileVault, so I decrypted and it fixed nothing. I will have to try removing the sleep image before trying anything else. Thanks for the tip!

 

[halfbad]

That is exactly the same issue I have been having! It makes sense now that hibernation has something to do with it. Someone else tried to tell me is was FileVault, so I decrypted and it fixed nothing. I will have to try removing the sleep image before trying anything else. Thanks for the tip!

Yes try it out, but make sure to disable hibernation first then the image. Then run first aid from disk utilities on your dive and the Os volume. Not best permanent solution, as your standby isn't as long and I would still look into your drive board as well. Hope it works out, let us know the results.

 

[iamMacPerson]

Yes try it out, but make sure to disable hibernation first then the image. Then run first aid from disk utilities on your dive and the Os volume. Not best permanent solution, as your standby isn't as long and I would still look into your drive board as well. Hope it works out, let us know the results.

Will do! Thank you for your help. I will be taking the machine in this coming week I hope.

 

[iamMacPerson]

Yes try it out, but make sure to disable hibernation first then the image. Then run first aid from disk utilities on your dive and the Os volume. Not best permanent solution, as your standby isn't as long and I would still look into your drive board as well. Hope it works out, let us know the results.

Disabling Hibernation did not fix the problem. It happened again this morning.

 

[rutrack]

Disabling Hibernation did not fix the problem. It happened again this morning.

You have Ipad Air in your signature, are you using it as external display through third party apps, like Duet ?

 

[iamMacPerson]

You have Ipad Air in your signature, are you using it as external display through third party apps, like Duet ?

No never.

 

[twisted-pixel]

Hi folks. I might be having the same issue and am at a complete loss

If I log in as guest, I get screen correctly. If I log in as me, I get a blank screen. I can see pop up messages in the right hand corner telling me I have Skype messages, texts, emails. But the screen itself is completely blank apart from that.

I've been through the reset options etc etc and still the same thing.

Any other ideas?
[doublepost=1486144296][/doublepost]to follow up, I tried the Shift-Option-CMD-Power thing, I also tried the Option-Cmd-P-R thing...none of which resolved anything. The only way I was able to recover was to restore from a back up.

This has happened twice now and a restore seems to be the only way I can get the screen back

 

[James.K.Polk]

Posted about this same issue. Have reformatted and everything less severe. Still no fix.

 

[rutrack]

Hi folks. I might be having the same issue and am at a complete loss

If I log in as guest, I get screen correctly. If I log in as me, I get a blank screen. I can see pop up messages in the right hand corner telling me I have Skype messages, texts, emails. But the screen itself is completely blank apart from that.

I've been through the reset options etc etc and still the same thing.

Any other ideas?
[doublepost=1486144296][/doublepost]to follow up, I tried the Shift-Option-CMD-Power thing, I also tried the Option-Cmd-P-R thing...none of which resolved anything. The only way I was able to recover was to restore from a back up.

This has happened twice now and a restore seems to be the only way I can get the screen back

In your case it seems to be caused by one of the apps, that is automatically launched when you log in as yourself.
Try to modify your start up apps, go Preferences->Users&Groups->Login items
You can then try to disable some apps.

 

[twisted-pixel]

thanks, part of the problem of course is I can't see the screen to turn these off one by one when it happens to try and figure out which one it is. I've removed everything now so will see if it occurs again.

 

[twisted-pixel]

Sadly, this happened again yesterday and again the only option was a restore (although this time I actually just reinstalled the OS since this is quicker than restoring from a back up).

Even a hard reset doesn't seem to work because apps are opening in the back ground (you can hear them) even though I have nothing in the 'auto launch'.

is there a way to restart the mac with no apps open..and KEEP it that way?
IE if I boot to safe mode by holding down shift, I have no apps running, but if I restart back to normal...do the apps that were running prior to Safemode restart again.

This is because it does seem clear that one of the apps I'm running is causing the screen issue...the screen is fine until I type in my password and hit enter...then it goes blank.

 

[rutrack]

Sadly, this happened again yesterday and again the only option was a restore (although this time I actually just reinstalled the OS since this is quicker than restoring from a back up).

Even a hard reset doesn't seem to work because apps are opening in the back ground (you can hear them) even though I have nothing in the 'auto launch'.

is there a way to restart the mac with no apps open..and KEEP it that way?
IE if I boot to safe mode by holding down shift, I have no apps running, but if I restart back to normal...do the apps that were running prior to Safemode restart again.

This is because it does seem clear that one of the apps I'm running is causing the screen issue...the screen is fine until I type in my password and hit enter...then it goes blank.

You can start your mac in safe mode and then remove start up applications in Preferences->Users and Groups -> Login Items

That is if you think one of them is causing a blank screen.

 

[DogCatMSMac]

I've been having trouble properly waking a MPB when it is connected to a 27" Dell screen. On one of those occassions it booted to a black screen. I brought it to life by just uplugging power from the MBP, but of course that is probably way too simple to work most of the time.